1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method for preparing an interventional and/or diagnostic imaging procedure performed with a medical imaging system that has at least two different medical imaging modalities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For interventional and/or diagnostic imaging, procedures performed on the patient and/or for treatment of the patient, the procedures are prepared and/or planned at least in part using medical image information that has been acquired by one or more medical imaging modalities, for example a magnetic resonance apparatus, a computed tomography apparatus, a PET (positron emission tomography) apparatus, etc. For this purpose, a reproducible, exact position of the patient is required in order to be able to fuse and/or combine image information of different medical imaging modalities to prepare and/or plan the intervention. However, these different medical imaging modalities frequently have different dimensions of the patient receptacle region provided for receiving the patient therein.
For interventional and/or diagnostic imaging, the patient is positioned on a patient support device for a medical imaging examination. The position of the patient on the patient support device should be adapted to the different imaging modalities, in particular to the different dimensions of the acquisition region provided for the acquisition of the patient, so that unwanted collisions of the patient with a housing of the medical imaging modality that surrounds the acquisition region can be prevented.
In the positioning of the patient, the medical technician does not always succeed in taking into account all medical imaging modalities provided for the interventional and/or diagnostic imaging. Most often, the medical operator only learns whether the arrangement of the patient on the patient support device is sufficient for a collision-free introduction into the additional medical imaging modalities during the insertion process into the corresponding medical imaging modality. However, this can lead to a repositioning of the patient if an additional imaging measurement (data acquisition) is to take place with an additional medical imaging modality. However, a repositioning of the patient hinders a fusing and/or superposition of image information and/or image data of the different medical imaging modalities. In addition to this, the clinical workflow can be significantly disrupted and/or delayed, for example during a neurosurgical procedure on the head of a patient, wherein the head is clamped within a head mounting and is covered with sterile cloths.